(3) 4-6 Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden. Illustrated by Chris Sheban. Zorba, a benevolent but powerful black cat, promises a dying seagull that he will care for her egg and teach the chick inside to fly. Together with the other Hamburg port cats, Zorba cares for the chick but is perplexed how to fulfill the last part of his mission. One reader's heartwarming is another reader's sappy, but the relationship between bird and cats is genuinely touching. The book is illustrated with black-and-white art.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke